I found 2 better RSS reader apps on Android

Almost every morning plays out the same in my home. Eggs for breakfast, and then a pour-over coffee that goes straight into the insulated Fellow Carter mug so I can stretch the flavors out for eternity. And while doing that, I read.

It used to be all over the place. I called it multi-pronged research. News websites, Threads, YouTube, Mastodon, Google News—you name it. But I soon got tired of all the noise. The incessant scrolling, jumping through sources, avoiding pop-up ads. The coffee was done, but I was none the wiser. So yet again, I went back to RSS, just as I’ve done for over a decade now.

Every morning, I pick up my lightweight and trusty Pixel 9a for the job (it doesn’t have my SIM in it, so no disturbances). In my search for the perfect RSS setup, I looked way beyond the Play Store and found two minimal RSS readers that do the job — and neither of them is called Feedly.

I’ve been using RSS for almost half of my existence on this planet. I survived the end of Google Reader and moved through many services with my trusty OPML file in tow (the file that stores all my RSS subscription links, in the folder structure that I like). I’ve tried so many services and apps that my OPML file is more important than any RSS sync service.

I keep coming back to it because of the sheer control I have over my feed. I read independent blogs, large publications, and dedicated tech sites like Android Authority daily. I punch in the sources, and that’s all I see.

And if you know where to look, you’ll find RSS sources everywhere. I follow people’s Bluesky and Mastodon accounts via RSS, keep tabs on YouTube pages, and for a while I even tried using subreddits via RSS (though it got so chaotic I had to let it go). The point is, you can make RSS your own. You can use a sync service if you want, or, like me, keep updating and moving the one true OPML file.

After the untimely demise of Google Reader, Feedly emerged as a spiritual successor. I’ve used it many times over the past decade, and even now my Feedly sources are up to date. If you have never used an RSS service before, Feedly is a good place to start.

But these days, Feedly is more of a content platform than an RSS reader. The app starts me off with a curated list of the day’s top stories, rather than my actual chronological feed (which is hidden in the sidebar). There are prompts to get you to upgrade and, of course, integrate AI. In my testing, Feedly’s free plan doesn’t automatically show a full-text view for truncated feeds either. The app itself, while fine to use, looks dated and isn’t as customizable as I’d like.

So, what’s the alternative? Most days, I go with Read You. This is a free, open-source RSS reader with a minimal design based on the Material You design language. It looks sleek, with nice icons and an airy interface with big headings. Plus, it supports Android’s dynamic colors, so when I change the wallpaper (which is often), Read You’s accent color adapts automatically, a delightful little touch.

I keep coming back for the reading experience. It’s the closest thing I can get to a paperback book without switching to an e-ink display. The toolbar and the buttons have no chrome around them, and they disappear the moment I scroll. It’s just the text and a few images.

The reading interface is customizable as well (I default to unread articles on launch). If you’re coming from the iPhone world, you can switch to the Reeder theme (though I, personally, think the Material You theme has an edge). You can switch to a different font or load up your own font file. If you want, you can customize the font size, the text spacing, and even the padding. For early-morning reading, the OLED black theme goes a long way (pairs well with Pixel’s expanded dark theme). For feeds that show truncated articles, there’s an option to automatically parse full website text (hidden behind a long-press gesture on the site name).

Most importantly, when I use Read You, I feel at home. All the RSS features work as you’d expect. I can get notifications about new articles, turn off badges entirely, organize feeds into folders, and listen to articles if I want.

While I use Read You every day without any issues, it’s still pre-1.0, and the roadmap shows why. Read You is missing a widget I would desperately like, and as it stands, Feedly sync is still in the future. You can sync via Fever, the Google Reader API, or FreshRSS. Or, like me, just import your OPML file.

Of the two apps, FeedFlow is the one I use less, but it’s the one I’d recommend to most Android users. It’s available on the Play Store (along with F-Droid), and unlike Read You, it’s a mature, stable RSS reader available across Android, iOS, Linux, Windows, and Mac. You can import your own OPML file or connect to services like FreshRSS, Miniflux, Feedbin, and BazQux. You can also handle the cross-device sync yourself using iCloud (Apple devices only), Dropbox, or Google Drive.

While Read You leans towards a light and breezy look, FeedFlow has a utilitarian aesthetic. The text-only layout options, paired with the excellent OLED black theme, go a long way in making early-morning reading sessions easier on my eyes. By default, FeedFlow opens all articles in a cached reader view, pulling the entire website’s content. If you disable this feature from Settings > Reading Behavior, it will just open the article in the browser. This means that without any changes, you’re getting the best reading experience.

Along with the Black theme, it’s the widget that I use most often. An entire page on my Pixel Launcher home screen is dedicated to this widget, which supports scrolling. Every 30 minutes, the widget refreshes with the latest articles (as long as background sync is enabled in the settings). This is a feature I sorely miss in Read You.

FeedFlow has a hidden feature that tells you the developer is a prolific RSS reader himself. Using the Blocked Words feature, you can automatically hide articles that contain words you don’t want to see. Like the mute feature on social media platforms, but for websites. Mighty useful if you don’t want yet another Elon Musk update at 7:30 in the morning.

I lean towards Read You, but I still use both

I use both RSS readers throughout the day, but my preferred option remains Read You. There’s something about the reading experience that just calls to me. When I want to quickly check the news, I prefer FeedFlow’s widget and the slightly faster, text-only interface I’ve set up in the app. Perhaps a well-themed Material You widget from Read You will tip the scales in the future, but for now, I’m happy with my customized, minimal news-reading experience that’s completely under my control.